A cellular communication architecture may comprise machine type communication (MTC) terminals which may be characterized by an infrequent and small data traffic. This particular kind of data transmission of a MTC terminal may often come along with limited energy resources of the MTC terminal. For example, such a MTC terminal may be configured as a sensor or actuator configured for measuring a temperature, and being powered by a battery. The sensor or actuator may periodically send status update reports, for example once per week, to an application server located in the communication network or outside of the communication network.
Usually, the MTC terminal only remains in its connected state for a short time, and accordingly switches from its connected state into its idle state, in order to save the energy resources of the MTC terminal. Therefore, each data transmission of the MTC terminal may be accompanied by a transition of the MTC terminal from its idle state into its connected state.
Therefore, current communication network deployments may show a signaling overhead resulting from frequent transitions of a MTC terminal from its idle state into its connected state. Further, although being energy-deprived, an energy consumption of a MTC terminal may be high owing to the performed transitions and the time when being in the connected state. Yet further, communication network resources may be inefficiently used owing to the signaling exchange associated with the transition of a MTC terminal.
It is known that extended Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycles can be applied to MTC terminals such that the MTC terminal may stay during the prolonged DRX time in its standby mode while being still connected to the radio access network. Therefore, energy resources of the MTC terminal may be saved, and, further, transitions of the MTC terminal from its idle state into its connected state may be omitted.
However, a MTC terminal may roam from one cell to another cell of the radio access network, and may thus show a high mobility. Therefore, such a MTC terminal is not suitable for using DRX extended cycles in that measurement reports executed by the MTC terminal in association with the handover may not be feasible.